“I will go back to London to-morrow and send the message in your name.”
“The story deepens,” said the Captain, when he returned with the reply from the Hon. Nathaniel Adams Sawyer. It read,
“State National. Deposited five hundred. Revere House. Interviewed my bank.”
“What does it mean?” asked Florence. “So many words are omitted. I can't make sense of it.”
“It means,” said the Captain, “that Col. Spencer is innocent. He was staying at the Revere House when I paid him his three hundred dollars. He must have cashed your father's check at the hotel, they paying him five hundred dollars only, and they, I mean the hotel proprietors, deposited it in their bank, the State National.”
“But what do the last three words mean?”
“They mean that some one in your father's bank raised the check and he has seen the bank officers about it.”
“I'm so glad,” cried Florence. “You must come and explain it all to Aunt Ella.”
She was greatly pleased to learn that Captain Hornaby was innocent of any complicity in the embezzlement, and said to Florence: “You will get a letter from your father telling you who the real criminal is,” and turning to the Captain, continued, “We go back to Fernborough Hall to-morrow, Captain Hornaby, but when that letter comes we will send for you.”
“I can bear the suspense now that Colonel Spencer and myself are free from any charge of criminality, but I greatly regret, Miss Sawyer, that your father has met with such a heavy loss.”